On the Verge of a Macabre End
by xX Harbinger Xx
Summary: I wrote a short story on the events prior to events in the book "On the Beach", which was written by Nevil Shute in 1957. It tells about the start of the Russo-Chinese War in the book and of the first use of nuclear weapons in anger in the Cold War.


**Soviet Army Checkpoint, Siberia, Soviet Union, February 15****th****, 1961, 1000 hours local time**

It was a cold winter morning as a squad of four soldiers patrolled the area around the road's checkpoint. Bleach white snow fell from the sky and onto the goggles of one of the men watching the road, but he wiped it off with his hand. He was freezing cold, so in an attempt to try to get some blood flowing into his hands, he tightened his grip around the fully-loaded AK-47 assault rifle that was issued to him by the Soviet Army. Repeatedly, he'd loosened and retighten his grip on the weapon. He turned to his friend and saw that the soldier was stripping his AKSU submachine gun into its individual pieces to clean it out; he hadn't cleaned it in over four months. The other two men in the squad were asleep and weren't due to awaken until it was time for them to relieve the first two of their guard duty.

"Why are we out here in the middle of nowhere? I mean, there isn't really anything of importance out here," the first soldier asked, talking through his ski mask.

The second soldier turned his attention away from his weapon to respond. "Sorry, but I don't really know why we are out here either. I wish I could be transferred somewhere warmer, like in Kiev."

"Speaking of which, how's your family doing?"

"They're doing fairly well now. This year's harvest back on the farm was very plentiful, so everyone in the commune is happy. You know that I get to go on leave tomorrow, right? I'm heading straight to the commune; I really miss my son and wife sitting out here on this road."

"Yeah, you've just been lucky." The first soldier joked, "I don't get to see my wife until the 25th. She said that out baby is due just in time for me to spend some time with my new son before I leave for another six months of standing in the snow in the middle of nowhere…"

The second soldier smiled. "Congratulations Zubov! Is it possible if you could bring photos of him back with you?"

Zubov responded, "Sure thing Vladimir." He went back to guard duty. Vladimir finished cleaning his weapon and joined him in guarding the checkpoint. The only movement for miles around was that of falling snow, blissfully drifting through the cold winter air on its way to the glossy surface of the road. The ice on it would make it hard for any car to travel on, so traffic here was almost nonexistent. Zubov took a picture out of his coat pocket, a photograph his wife sent him when he was defending Stalingrad back during the Second World War. She had flowing brown hair and brown eyes that starred back out to him. After brushing off the snow that fell on it, he placed the photo back in his pocket.

The sound of a twig snapping in the distance echoed through the forest. Zubov quickly twisted his head in the direction that the sound came from and scanned the area for anything out of the ordinary but found nothing.

"Vladimir, did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I did." He responded, looking in the same general direction. He took out his binoculars and looked through the forest. Again, nothing was seen, so they decided that it must have been some animal that made the noise. They continued guarding the checkpoint, still keeping a lookout for anything moving around.

Several minutes passed without another sound emitting from the forest. The silence was broken once again, but this time by Zubov humming a song to entertain himself, but then near the ending of the song another twig snapped. Vladimir and Zubov passed it off as another animal and completely ignored it once more.

Another minute went by and again the silence sets in, the snow continuing to fall. Vladimir noticed that his boot's laces were loose, so he bent down to retie his boots. When he stood back up, a feeling of intense cold shot through his spine as something was pressed against the back of his head. Whatever it was, it was cold, hard, and quick as the sound of what could be described as a click drew Zuhov's attention. He was shocked to see his buddy face down in the snow, blood gushing from just under his skull. Drawing his weapon up, he looked all around him to desperately search for the shooter, but he couldn't see anyone nearby, so he searched the hills, thinking it could have been a sniper. As he was searching, he ran behind the checkpoint gate to take any cover that was available to avoid Vladimir's fate. Still scanning the hills, another snapping of a twig echoed throughout the forest. Instead of ignoring it, the overwhelming terror that ran through him made him quiver in fear, trying to fight an enemy he can't even see. As he was looking beyond his cover continuing to search, he instantly became limp and he dropped to the ground, becoming the next victim to fall.

One of the men inside the gatehouse woke up to the alarm clock, signaling that he and his friend had to stand guard and let the other two get some well-deserved rest. When he opened the door, he had no time to react as a man in a snow-camouflaged uniform and white ski mask appeared before him, drawing his silenced weapon to the soldier's forehead, and firing a single round into his skull, immediately ending his life. The mysterious assassin quickly caught the body before it fell to the floor and laid it down carefully, making sure not to make any more noise than he already made. Letting the body rest on the floor, the man slowly walked over towards the last soldier, who was still sleeping, most likely dreaming about his girlfriend or wife back home somewhere in western Russia. It didn't matter though because when the man pressed the barrel of his silenced pistol against the temple of the soldier, his eyes popped wide open in shock, but before he could even turn his eyes to see what was going on, the click of the trigger and splatter of deep red blood exploded in front of the assassin. He only had one more job to complete: walking over to the radio, he yanked the cording from the wall and destroyed any communications equipment inside the station so that even if there were more Soviet soldier around, there was no way they could possibly contact their commanders, leaving them defenseless out in the middle of nowhere.

Now having completed his job, the man radioed in that the area was secure and all targets were dealt with. He dragged the bodies of Zubov and Vladimir out of the road and piled them inside the station along with their buddies and the destroyed radio equipment. Shortly afterwards, he looked outside the station to see rows and rows of soldiers marching through the checkpoint, followed by massive formations of T-54/55 tanks and trucks full of even more soldiers and towing artillery. Having to fit all the equipment on a two-lane road meant that it took longer than expected for all of the army group to past through, but it was done within ninety minutes. Now a powerful enemy has rooted itself within the Soviet Union without ever being detected. On the sides of every tank and truck was a red star with a yellow outline and a yellow symbol within the star; the Chinese were at war with the Soviet Union.

**Moscow, Soviet Union, February 15****th****, 1961, 500 hours local time **

A pair of Soviet soldiers in an UAZ-469 raced through the city of Moscow. They ignored traffic signs, ran other cars off the road, and broke almost every driving law in the city, but it didn't matter because they were being escorted by military police as well as the local city police; the Soviet Premier's life was endangered and the group had to find him, fast.

Rounding a corner, one of the soldiers spotted him drinking a cup of coffee outside of a café. The UAZ turned sharply and squealed towards the premier, stopping right in front of his street-side table. His two guards raised their AK-47s at the unidentified car until a man in a military uniform stepped out. His broad shoulders made him stand out as he walked towards the premier and made a hand gesture, asking the guards to stand down, which they did by lowering their weapons. His officer's cap had the Soviet emblem on it, a hammer and sickle, just above its visor, which was covering his eyes. This man was a close friend to the Soviet premier and when the man saluted him, the premier smiled and greeted him.

The officer looked up to speak to the premier. "Sir, you need to get in the car immediately. Your life is at risk and we need to take you somewhere safe."

The premier was instantly confused at the news, expecting his friend to have a nice chat with him instead. "What do you mean?"

The officer replied, "I'd rather not discuss this in public. Please get in the car." He stepped aside to allow the premier to walk to the car. As asked, he started his walk to the UAZ, followed by the officer, who hurried him into the vehicle. Once everyone was in, the soldier behind the wheel sped off back to where it came from in the same hazardous manner in which it arrived.

After a reckless ten minutes of driving, the soldier arrived at their destination: Red Square. The people in the UAZ and the military police followed the two to a small building in an alleyway just off of Red Square. The officer opened the door for the premier and the rest, and then followed them in while the two soldiers stayed behind to guard the door. Inside was a dark hallway leading to a caged box attached to steel cables, an elevator leading deep underground. The premier and the officer boarded the cage and closed the mesh door as the military police guarded the elevator. The officer pressed the down button and the two went down in the cage.

Three minutes and fifty-five meters later, the two men stepped out into a dark room with banks of computers, screens of varying sizes, and military personal that were running around every which way. The bunker glowed red from the various flashing warning lights and alarms.

"General Rutskoy, tell me what's going on here." The premier demanded.

The officer explained, "The defenses around St. Petersburg and Stalingrad have been overrun by German forces, so we have lost all major strongholds west of Moscow. Krusk is currently under siege by the French, but we believe that they could be beaten back within two weeks, but even worse is that the rest of the NATO armies are steadily advancing towards Moscow. It's a bad situation, albeit isn't the worse news of the day."

"Well, what else has happened while I was enjoying my coffee?" the premier said.

"An hour ago, our eastern borders have been breached by Chinese forces and they have advanced deep within our territory. We were shocked to hear an incoming message from Siberia by one of our army bases that told us about how large the invading force was."

"And when did you learn about this attack?" the premier asked.

Rutskoy checked his watch and said, "Exactly four and a half minutes ago, sir."

The premier grew angry with the general. "How in the world did you morons not know about the whole Chinese army invading us until just now?!" he shouted in the man's face.

He didn't move an inch as he was being yelled at. "Sir, we believe it's because our soldiers could have been too shocked to call it in; I think that they didn't believe what they were seeing."

The premier gave him a blank stare and said, "Maybe a few, but I seriously doubt that every single Soviet soldier would be so easily scared like that."

"One faint radio transmission we've received had a soldier trying to say something, but before he could clearly utter a word, one of the technicians heard what sounded like footsteps in the snow as if someone was taking their time to walk towards whoever was using the radio and the unmistakable sound of a gunshot was heard. Maybe the Chinese are using assassins to delay our defenses?" the general inquired.

The premier looked as though he didn't care how the word of an advancing army was delayed, so he moved on to his next and most important question. "How far are the Chinese into Soviet territory?"

Rutskoy let out a sign and said, "As of now, they have taken over most of the Siberian region and are advancing through Kazakhstan. Soviet forces are holding out in central Kazakhstan, but with the Chinese reinforcements as well as their air force, I don't think that we'll be able to keep them out of European Russia by two months. As of the Siberian front, the Chinese forces are stopped near Irkutsk, but I think they'll start to move west within the next week or so."

The conversation was interrupted by one of the technicians controlling radar equipment. He shouted, "Incoming bombers from the southeast at nine thousand meters, ETA two minutes!"

"Hmm," the premier uttered.

"Sir, get down!" Rutskoy shouted to the premier, grabbing him as he shoved him under a desk. Suddenly, a shock wave ripped through the bunker as bombs fell on Red Square above. Small chunks of rock and dust fell from the bunker's ceiling as more bombs impacted the city above. The bunker shook, rocked, and shaken, but it still held in one piece. Unknown to the personal in the bunker, the city above was in worse shape than they could imagine. Not only did the city landscape resemble that of a cratered nightmare, but some historical buildings were completely destroyed. The Kremlin's remains were strung out all over Red Square and countless other buildings, such as St. Basil's Cathedral, were bombed out of recognition.

Afterwards, the highest ranking officers joined the premier as he reviewed a map of the Soviet Union with the armies of enemy NATO and Chinese forces placed where they've occupied Soviet territory. Both nations took control of large amounts of land and the Soviets only had half of their original land at the moment. The Soviets could barely handle the NATO forces to the west as is, but now the massive Chinese forces have entered the brawl and there was only one way to save the Russian homeland and her citizens now was to take drastic measures. He discussed the issue with his commanders and tired to find other ways of salvation, but all in the room came to the dreaded conclusion that there was no other way, so the premier walked over to one of the control boards which had two ignition slots that were four meters apart from each other. Between them was a moderately sized red button with a glass case around it, locked into place with yet another ignition slot. He gave the technicians responsible for the control board some commands and they obeyed, sliding the keys, which are handcuffed to their arms, into the ignitions and turned them to the right ninety degrees. The premier gave orders to one of the generals and he took out his key and unlocked the glass box covering the red button. After confirming the premier's orders, he entered in coordinates into the computer and pressed down on the button, which triggered yet another flashing red light and alarm, this time signaling that a missile has been launched from a facility near Moscow. The premier bowed his head as if he regretted what he had done, but he knew it was their only hope of survival.

**Chelkar, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union, February 15****th****, 1961, 615 hours local time**

"Hold the line!" someone shouted into the cold night air.

"They're coming!" another yelled as loud as he could.

Bullets flew through the air and tracers could be seen flying towards the Soviet frontline. One soldier fired a RPG; the rocket brightly glowed all the way to its target, a Chinese T-54/55 tank, and exploded on impact, instantly killing whoever was in it. A few soldiers that were reloading popped up out of the trench and opened up with their AK-47s, which barely added to the noises of warfare that was taking place. All around the battlefield, snow fell to Earth blissfully, oblivious to the chaos ensuing around it. It gave the tanks of both sides an eerie beauty to them as they fired their cannons and bathing them in bright light for a spilt second at a time, the blood from killed soldiers painted all over their bodies.

A soldier ran up to the commanding officer and shouted, "Sir, our lines can't hold anymore! We have to pull back at once or we'll be slaughtered!"

The officer twisted his head towards him and said, "I know! I know! I'm trying to get reinforcements from HQ!" He checked on his radioman and the soldier told him that nobody back at HQ was responding. Just then, a tank shell exploded nearby, sending the bodies flying into the air. Some of the men were still alive as they let out a blood-chilling scream as they were thrown into the air 15 meters and slammed back on the dirt at almost twenty miles per hour, crushing every bone in their bodies into dust and turning them into unrecognizable hunks of meat. Snow continued to fall and started to cover up the bodies, as if it was trying to hide the destruction brought about by the savage fighting. One of the men's faces was sticking out of the snow, starring into the abyss, his eyes and mouth wide open with snow still falling on him. The fighting continued on, quickly forgetting the unlucky soldiers who meet their violent fates so early in their young lives.

Shortly after, there was a loud rumbling noise that was heard by everyone on the battlefield. Out of the confusion of soldiers on both sides, the bullets stopped flying and everything stood still as people tried to find out what was happening. A Chinese soldier looked up into the sky and saw a bright ball of yellow light descending through the upper atmosphere. A Soviet soldier looking through his binoculars saw the same sight and gazed at it, wondering if it was an asteroid. The unknown object fell to Earth at high speed and was descending to the battlefield rapidly. Whatever it was, both armies knew that it would be here in only a few seconds and all they had time for was to stare at it, watching it head towards them. They knew nothing could stop it, so everyone dropped whatever weapon they had; the people in the tanks and other vehicles stepped out to watch with the infantry, continuing to gaze into the heavens. It finally arrived, impacting the battlefield with amazing force. The brilliant light emitted by the object blinded everyone within a few miles from ground zero of the impact site and the deafening silence roared throughout the battlefield, instantly making everyone's ears rupture, but they didn't have time to bleed; the extreme heat, huge chunks of shrapnel, and the powerful shockwave disintegrated everything in its path. The rapid winds blowing from ground zero threw anything not attached to the ground miles away and flattened everything else and the vacuum created shortly after sucked up whatever was left and tossed it into the atmosphere; all that was left of the battlefield was the sandy soil which, due to the extreme conditions created from the object's impact, was melted and turned into a smooth sheet of glass that spanned for hundreds, if not thousands, of meters. A huge cloud shaped as a mushroom loomed over the area where thousands of people were once fighting each other in a vicious engagement, but now the glass covered Earth reflected the brightness of the could back into the atmosphere, creating an eerie effect of a column of majestic light that filled the night sky. The short show was over shortly and life returned to normal, if there was any life left at all. Seconds later, Mother Nature resumed her role and the snow continued to come down from the heavens towards the glass surface, now glittering in the moonlight. Bleach white snow fell onto the glass surface, but nobody was there to wipe it away.

_3,500 words total_


End file.
